Arizona has a substantial, immediate demand for more housing, and it's only going to grow in the next few years.

Why it matters: Affordable housing drove massive population growth here for decades, but high prices, high interest rates and a supply crunch have combined to make housing increasingly inaccessible in recent years.

The big picture: Arizona has an immediate need for about 56,000 more housing units and a longer-term shortfall of around 110,000, per a new report from the free-market Common Sense Institute (CSI).

State of play: The "immediate need" largely reflects people who are currently seeking new homes but can't get them, such as those living with roommates or family, renters who want to own and homeowners who want to buy new houses, CSI director of policy and research Glenn Farley told Axios.

• Maricopa County alone has an estimated, immediate need for 34,000 new homes.

Threat level: The immediate need shortfall increased in 2025 after back-to-back years of decreases, per the report.

• Local government permitting spiked in late 2021 and early 2022 due to post-pandemic demand, but has consistently decreased since then, with an especially large drop last year, the report said. It's unclear why, Farley told us.
• Permitting is largely a proxy for homebuilding, with most permits resulting in new homes within a year, per the report.

Yes, but: The state's longer-term deficit dropped by about 7,500, which the report attributed to slowing rates of population growth and larger households.

Arizona's housing situation has gotten better over the past few years, Farley said.

• The worst of the crunch was in 2023 when a combination of high prices and interest rates upended the market, he said.
• Buyers benefitted last year from a 2.9% decrease in prices, per the report.
• "We're better off today than we were last year. We were better off last year than we were in 2022," Farley told Axios, with the caveat that "we're still in a whole different environment" than we were pre-pandemic.

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We lost a lot of good beer soldiers in the first round of our craft brew bracket, but that also means we're one day closer to crowning a champion.

Catch up quick: We've launched a bracket-style competition of local pours in celebration of American Craft Beer Week.

How it works: Round 2 is live. Pick your favorites here until 3pm today.

• We'll have a winner by Friday.

President Trump has nominated Kari Lake to be U.S. ambassador to Jamaica.

State of play: The former Fox 10 newscaster and two-time Arizona Republican candidate who lost races for governor and U.S. Senate was among a list of nominees the White House sent to the Senate yesterday.

What she's saying: "Jamaica is a country I know very well, full of incredible people, and if confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our nations, advancing America's interests abroad, and building on the deep friendship shared by the American and Jamaican people," Lake posted on X.

Catch up quick: Trump last year appointed Lake to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees Voice of America.

• Lake placed around 1,300 employees on administrative leave as Trump sought to gut the agency.
• A federal judge ruled in March that Lake's actions as head of USAGM were invalid because she hadn't been confirmed by the Senate.

Flashback: Lake is the second Arizonan whom Trump has nominated to serve as ambassador to Jamaica.

• Businessman Don Tapia held the position during Trump's first term.

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🏗️ The developer behind the massive Halo Vista site near TSMC in north Phoenix applied to buy an adjacent 1,300-acre parcel of state land. (AZcentral)

🛫 The FAA wants to change flight paths at Sky Harbor and nine other Valley airports. (Arizona's Family)

🚶 Visitors to Meteor Crater will be permitted to hike to the bottom for the first time starting May 16. (Phoenix New Times)

⚖️ AG Kris Mayes will sue to remove former state Rep. David Marshall as Navajo County recorder on the grounds that the Arizona Constitution forbids him from holding the office until the end of his legislative term. (KJZZ)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is again going after U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, this time accusing him of disclosing classified information.

The big picture: The Trump administration has tried over the past several months to censure, demote and indict the Arizona senator and retired naval captain for what President Trump called "seditious behavior."

• Kelly and his allies say it's a blatant attempt to silence him and dissuade other military veterans from speaking out against the administration.

The latest: Hegseth on Sunday posted on X that Kelly's comments earlier that day on "Face the Nation" included details of depleted US weapons stockpiles that were shared in a classified Pentagon briefing.

• "Did he violate his oath… again?" Hegseth wrote, adding that his department's legal counsel would investigate.

The other side: Kelly responded with a video clip of Hegseth testifying at a recent Senate hearing.

• "We had this conversation in a public hearing a week ago," he said. "That's not classified, it's a quote from you."

The intrigue: The high-profile fight has helped Kelly, a possible presidential candidate, raise gobs of campaign cash.

• We expect this iteration of the feud will continue that trend.